Recently by Ben Hurst

Internet giant Google today announced it is developing a new operating system for laptop computers in a move seen as a strong challenge to Microsoft's dominance.

The new technology is being designed for those that "live on the web" and is initially aimed at netbooks, although it will eventually be used to power full sized desktops as well.

Google said the new operating system (OS) will run through its nine-month-old web browser, Chrome, and the company said it was going "back to basics" with the technology.

Online auction site eBay has started a petition against what it claims are manufacturers trying to block their products being sold through it.

It's quite an interesting issue - it all seems to have started with a number of lawsuits in Europe about the sheer volume of counterfeit goods being sold there.

Various clothes and perfume manufacturers took umbrage at the hit in sales, and also worried about people buying inferior goods labelled as their own. They felt eBay wasn't doing much to stop it, and to be fair, it wasn't - after all the website trousered 10 per cent of each sale under £40 - stopping trade would just hit profits.

Anyway, eBay is now trying to take the moral high ground claiming it was built on a "simple idea": "that we could empower people by building a global trading platform where practically anyone could buy or sell practically anything.

"But that idea is now under threat from certain brand owners and manufacturers who are trying to turn back the clock and block the sale of their products on online marketplaces and other websites across the EU.

"Ultimately, what is at stake is the right of sellers to compete fairly in the wider online marketplace, and the right of buyers to be able to access the best possible deals from the widest possible selection of goods."

eBay claims that last year only 0.15% of listings last year were detected or reported as potentially counterfeit - although presumably the volume is so massive people don't bother reporting things. and eBay's business is so wide ranging, a high proportion of buisness isn't anything which could be fake in any case.

The website continues: "The real aim of these brands is to block the sale of all their products on our site - regardless of whether such items are new or second-hand, genuine or fake. It's not just luxury items that are affected, but also everyday items like children's toys, electronic equipment, lawnmowers and pushchairs. And if we want to prevent other brand owners from following suit, we need to act now.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband today defended the next head of MI6 after details of his personal life were posted on social networking website Facebook.

Pictures and private details of Sir John Sawers, who will take on the post in November, were revealed on an easily accessible profile page of his wife, Lady Shelley Sawers.

The page was taken down after the Mail on Sunday informed the Foreign Office. The Liberal Democrats called for an inquiry into the matter, while senior Tory MP Patrick Mercer said Sir John had left himself open to blackmail.

The internet never ceases to amaze in its propensity for giving a voice to the most extreme examples of humanity.

A court case has just finished which saw a formal civil servant cleared of obscenity over a charming tribute piece he wrote about harmless pop group Girls Aloud.

Darryn Walker, 35, of South Shields, South Tyneside, was charged under the Obscene Publications Act after the blog appeared on a fantasy pornography site.

The story concerned, and there's no way of dressing this up really, involved descriptions of, and I quote from the blog: "the rape torture and mutilation of five of the sexiest girls in pop today."

There is a disclaimer which gives warning to anyone who has happened across the site by accident: "The following is a work of erotic/sadistic fantasy set in a world in which women are disposable sex objects that exist solely for the pleasure of men. It contains themes of extreme sexism, misogyny, torture, rape, mutilation, dismemberment, murder, execution and male supremacy over women."

Anyway Darryn got off because his defence argued the blog could only be found by those looking for specific material.

Mr Walker's 12-page blog - Girls (Scream) Aloud - was brought to the attention of police by the Internet Watch Foundation, an organisation for the public and IT professionals which polices potentially obscene material.

The courts also heard that Mr Walker had lost his job since his arrest.

The blog itself...well suffice to say each member of the group is visited in turn.

The web certainly allows all kinds of wackos to indulge the darkest corners of their personalities and meet like minded people.

And, amazingly the internet also seems to prove that nothing is too weird, far out and downright strange for there not to be a thriving community glorying in it.

Perhaps we should get the people who fantasize about murder together with groups which fantasize about killing people who fantasize about murder and see what happens. Whatever the outcome is, there will be web denizens with an unhealthy interest in the results.

Below: Girls Aloud, thankfully not screaming.

I'VE poked fun in the past at pr people sending us surveys to publicise products.

Anyone on a regional newspaper knows that unfortunately the well of inspiration usually runs pretty dry when it comes to promoting some contracts. They basically carry out a survey, which is somehow regionally broken down, to ensure coverage in small papers around the country.

But this one from Citigate deserves a mention in despatches for one of the greatest ever extrapolations of data from a pretty minute source.

The release relates to 'DIY Disasters' and is aimed at publicising Homeserve - a company which offers workmen to come round and do your DIY for you.

Anyway, let's look at their figures. "New research by HomeServe shows that some 956,000 people injure themselves every year in the region by taking on troublesome home improvements."

"Accident and emergency units across the West Midlands have to deal with around 42 injuries caused by botched DIY problems every day." (they didn't actually get in touch with any hospitals, just based it on the survey results).

Ah - I geddit - make people think they'll end up in A&E putting up those shelves and they'll hire someone - ie Homeserve - in!

The figure of 956,000 people injuring themselves every year sounds a bit iffy. In the press release they explain their reasoning thus:

"People in the West Midlands that have had a DIY accident in past 5 years: 956,000 [how this figure is arrived at given they asked 2051 adults from across the whole country is not explained].
Therefore spread over 5 years = 191,200 per year
Divided by 365 days = 523 per day
8% of injuries in the Midlands resulted in victims being checked at A&E = 42 A&E visits per day"

Hang on a minute - they said it was 956,000 EACH year - not 191,200. And it does seem something of a leap in statistical analysis to say that if eight per cent of the small number of Midland respondents answered they had been to A&E in the last five years, therefore eight per cent of the ENTIRE population must have.

Anyway I feel like I've come up with the answer. Don't do DIY, certainly don't hire someone in to do it, and spend the money saved on beer. And certainly don't believe any figures you read in 'survey' stories.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband fell victim to an internet spoof after Michael Jackson's death.

A Twitter account page set up in his name by a prankster carried a tribute to the singer, which was then picked up by media organisations.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "This is an apposite moment for us to point out (as some commentators suspect) that the Foreign Secretary does not have a Twitter account.
"The FCO does, however, and you can find it here www.twitter.com/foreignoffice."

In case you were wondering, our banana loving Foreign Secretary didn't say on Twitter: "Never has one soared so high and yet dived so low. RIP Michael."

So there you go.

A council today banned staff and elected members from using the social networking website Twitter after complaints that abusive and inappropriate language were being used.

Plymouth City Council staff trying to access the site are now directed to the authority's home page.

The move came after the council received a number of complaints about content on the site, including the city's Labour group leader Tudor Evans, who was warned he could face disciplinary action for using insulting language about a BNP member and calling him a "Nazi".

Children are at risk from "YouTube-style" websites which offer free access to pornography without proper safeguards, the president of the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) warned today.

Sir Quentin Thomas said a number of sites have developed which provide instant access to explicit video clips but make little or no effort to stop children viewing them or warn users about what they are about to see.

Why is the BBC determined to treat some sports with contempt while others are given Rolls-Royce treatment?

The situation was crystallised for me when I went to the www.bbc.co.uk homepage yesterday to discover that the news rundown had been shoved half way down and replaced, unasked for, with a huge Wimbledon section.

I've got nothing against tennis, but it did seem somewhat presumptuous to thrust this upon all the internet visitors without asking.

There has been much made of the Ashes series not being on terrestrial TV this year (which I am outraged about too), with the BBC being one of the stations which could have broadcast this to the nation at large (as opposed to a small number of high-fee paying subscribers).

But when I was really keen to see the Twenty20 highlights on BBC I looked at the schedule and was delighted to see the hour long show was at the excellent slot of 11.35pm - and as I have to be at work at 6.30am most days, I ended up taping it, and watching a day in arrears.

In spite of this ludicrous scheduling they managed around a million viewers for the highlights - and would presumably have done much better had it been earlier.

Given most games finished at around 9pm there's no excuse for not having a show by 9.30pm - after all channel 5 do it for the test matches.

Below: Maria Sharapova at the AEGON Classic in Birmingham recently. The BBC has the crazy notion that viewers would rather watch her than a load of ugly cricketers...

The 'outing' of police blogger Detective Constable Richard Horton poses some interesting questions.

For those who haven't been following the story, he wrote an interesting, provocative, humane, touching and thoughtful blog about the day to day life of a copper.

The fact that he wrote it anonymously annoyed some people.

Eventually he was tracked down and finally named after Mr Justice Eady ruled he had no 'reasonable expectation of privacy', so lifting an injunction which he won against the Times.

So he's now known, and his blog is finished. After all a serving police office couldn't write 'live' about cases he's dealing with.

Simple considerations like contempt of court would be regularly breached as in many cases the blogs, hitherto impossible to link with specific incidents, would easily be traced, and would breach the Magistrates Court Act, which, once a person has been charged, allows only ten details (age, name, charges etc) to be printed until a trial begins or the person pleads guilty.

DC Horton received a written warning from Lancashire police and his 'Nightjack' blog has now been deleted.

Shame really - it gave a real insight into the police, and the strange world of some forgotten estates they so regularly visit (and which are completely alien and unknown to so much of the population).

Another recent emergency services blogger has been more sympathetically treated - Tom Reynolds, an ambulance worker whose Random Acts of Reality site has been given support from his health authority.

In this case his employers, while not endorsing everything he says, realise that a true to life blog by a committed and caring worker generates sympathy and understanding of what they are trying to achieve.

For me, this is what 'Citizen Journalism' is all about. Not about just sitting alone in a bedroom blogging, commenting, retweeting (etc) blindly about what someone else is doing just so you can be first with something.

This is creating something worthwhile, interesting, moving, and real.

This issue also has some resonance with the debate currently taking place over the inquiry into Iraq.

In the case of DC Horton it was impossible for him to blog when it was known who he was.

He could harm court cases, make himself liable to defamation suits and almost certainly lose his job.

In the case of the Iraq inquiry, some people have said they will only give evidence if it is heard in private, presumably for similar reasons.

It is a difficult line to walk - do we want as close to the whole truth as possible or something which has been effectively castrated? (And in the case of the Iraq inquiry there is also the question of what will be revealed in the end.)

I'd certainly rather read Nightjack than some pre employer approved anodyne nonsense.